Court orders Rogers Communications pay C$500,000 in ads case

TORONTO Feb 24 (Reuters) - Rogers Communications Inc
was ordered to pay C$500,000 ($451,700) by an Ontario
court that said Canada's largest wireless company did not
conduct adequate tests to back up a claim that its Chatr
discount brand had better coverage than rivals.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling was reached on
Friday and disclosed on Monday by Canada's Competition Bureau,
an independent law enforcement agency.

The court had earlier dismissed Competition Bureau claims
that Rogers had used misleading advertising to promote Chatr,
which Rogers launched several years ago to fend off new entrants
such as Wind Mobile. At that point, the Competition Bureau had
sought a fine of C$10 million.

The latest ruling found Rogers did not conduct enough
testing to make the claims that customers on Chatr suffered
fewer dropped calls than those using new wireless carriers.

Rogers could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Competition Bureau said it was considering whether to
challenge the penalty for being too small, and also the court's
decision not to issue an order prohibiting similar advertising
in future.